King of the Kitchen
by Ariel32
Summary: Just what kind of punishment does a murderous king deserve?


I had to write this for a Language Arts paper, and I thought I'd just post it, see what people think...review!

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King George was a savage man. Years of living in the comfort of his palace, surrounded by beautiful ladies, and waited on hand and foot by servants had not softened the man's brutal nature. In fact, as the years passed, the king became colder and colder, and he thought of nothing but keeping his throne.

His wife had died long ago, but not before leaving the king with a single heir, Prince Davis. And each year, as the prince grew older and the king's reign grew shorter, the George thought of nothing but his throne. He had grown to love his power. He liked the way everyone feared him, and dared not displease him. He liked the way that even the strongest, tallest, toughest guard who eyed him with the utmost loathing could do aught but bow down in submission before him. But even more, he liked the feeling of sitting on his throne, knowing that the reason his subjects feared him was because he was in complete control of their lives.

Thus Prince Davis, the heir of the crown, presented a continual dilemma towards King George. Traditionally, Davis could only become king if his father stepped down from the throne, but there had been times in the past when the king had been overthrown by a network of betrayals and plots. After all, King George himself had succeeded his own father to the throne with the help of a dark and devious plan. So a shadow of unease was always present upon King George's mind...the faint and growing suspicion that the prince might be planning to remove the burden of the crown from his father.

A week before his son's sixteenth birthday, King George called a meeting with his most trusted advisors, the ones who had been part of his conspiracy to overthrow his father many years ago. They gathered together in a room deep in the dungeons beneath the castle, where no one would find them. Here, they proceeded to work out a course of action that could dispose of the prince.

Fortunately, even in the deepest and most sinister of places, there is always a glimmer of hope, a small pinprick of light in the crushing darkness. This tiny possibility of overcoming the king's lethal plan came in the form of a fairy. Such a sweet and light thing she was, but she was not to be tampered with.

Her name was Isabella, and she was the daintiest, most exquisite thing anyone had ever laid eyes on. It was by pure luck that she was down in the dungeons that day, for she had some important business of her own to complete elsewhere.

Isabella had a certain friend of hers, an elf, who, like all elves, was particularly prone to riches and gemstones. Elves are tricky creatures, but even they can be foolish at times, and Isabella's friend had managed to get himself caught stealing sapphires from one of the king's mines. The elf was a lucky fellow, for the humans who'd caught him had not recognized him for what he was, or else he would've been taken to the king, and goodness knows what would have happened to him. But the elf was only thrown into a dungeon.

Isabella owed a favor to her elf friend, so when he was captured, she was obliged to come free him. And it was as she was rushing by, muttering to herself about what a waste of time this was, that she heard voices.

Fairies have the keenest hearing. Isabella knew she couldn't possibly have mistaken those voices. So she flew back a ways and pressed one ear to the wall.

The words being spoken inside were barely audible, but they could be heard, nevertheless. Isabella stood quite still, her wings fluttering, and listened to all that was being said. A few minutes later, she rose into the air again, quite distressed.

"Humans," she murmured distractedly. "What a mess. Fairies would _never_ make such a squabble of things. Goodness! This _is_ such a waste of time!" And off she flew to look for someone named Prince Davis, who apparently was in danger of drowning the very next day.

Fairies like Isabella spent most of their time in the Other World, the one that humans can't reach, where all sorts of fabulous magical creatures live. In fact, Isabella had only been to the human world a couple of times before, and she'd never been to this kingdom. So she had to fly about for quite a while before she finally located Prince Davis. By then, she'd been spotted by a cook, four guards, a dog, and a little boy that was the son of one noble or the other. When she got to Davis, Isabella was quite out of breath from dodging a frying pan, a knife, and a punch that had all been sent her way.

Face flushed, her blonde hair falling out of its braid, Isabella drew up in front of the prince's door and started to knock. Down the hall, she could hear the sounds of the four guards who were still chasing her, yelling to each other about seeing a foot-long moth with a human body.

"I am _never_ setting foot in this world again," Isabella muttered, and she whipped out her wand. In a flurry of sparks, the prince's door fell open, and Isabella flew in, slamming it shut behind her. Then she turned to face the prince.

There was a momentary silence as the prince and the fairy took each other in. Then the prince opened his mouth...

"If you're going to yell for help, shut that mouth of yours right now," Isabella said irritably. "You humans are noisy creatures, aren't you? I could go deaf if I spent so much as a week in your world, if I didn't get smashed by a frying pan first."

The prince gaped.   
"Stop staring at me," Isabella ordered. She twisted around to look over her shoulder. "My wings aren't crumpled, are they?"

At that moment, the door smashed open, and four guards raced in. Isabella immediately took off towards the ceiling. The guards looked around.

"Don't worry, O might Prince," shouted one. "We've come in pursuit of a dangerous creature, but it'll be quite harmless when we're finished!"

"A very dangerous creature of an unknown species," added another. "But it's no match for us!"

"Look, at the ceiling! There it is!" The guards advanced. The prince looked curiously at Isabella.

"What is it?"

A hot, sweaty, and annoyed fairy does not have the sweetest of tempers. Isabella drew herself up.

"I am _not_," she exclaimed, "a moth!"

The guards froze. "A butterfly, perhaps?" one suggested.

That did it. Isabella swooped down, and all four guards covered their heads. "You idiots! You gangly, round-eared elves! You giant beardless dwarves! You ugly wingless fairies –"

"Er...we're not elves," a guard said nervously. "We're not dwarves either. Nor fairies..."

"Of course not," Isabella said furiously. "Not even an elf could be as stupid as you. And no dwarf would have missed me when he tried to hack at me with his ax. And do you even _think _I would mistake you for one of my own kind? No fairies are wingless, or even if they were, they would never be as clumsy as a human –"

"You're a fairy?" said the prince with interest.

"What did you think I was?" Isabella cried. "A moth with a human body?"

The guards cleared their throats. Isabella glared.

"So, most honored...er...fairy," the prince began. "What business has you here?"

"You," Isabella said shortly. She eyed the guards. "You all ought to be thanking me for saving your precious prince here, whose father will see that he drowns tomorrow by first paralyzing him and then throwing him in the river..."

"What?" the prince demanded? "What are you talking –"

"Yes," came a voice from the doorway. "Do enlighten us, O Virtuous Fairy. We humans seem to have none of your...intelligence." King George smiled.

Isabella turned angrily. "Do you mean to insult me, you –" and then she recognized his voice. "You...you were in the dungeons!"

The prince stared, confused. "Father, you were in the dungeons?"

"No," the king said smoothly. "I was simply..."

"Plotting your son's death!" Isabella interrupted.

King George gave the fairy a dangerous look. "Out of the kindness of my heart –"

"P_lease_," Isabella groaned. "A mountain troll could think up a better story than that."

" – I was visiting prisoners who'd been sentenced to a lifetime in the dungeons and who wished for forgiveness," King George finished.

Prince Davis hesitated.

"I think this...fairy...is out of her mind," the king said quietly. "Please, guards, remove her."

"Oh for goodness sake," Isabella snapped, and rose to the ceiling as the guards started to close in.

"Father..." the prince began.

"Davis," the king said nodding at him. "Could I speak to you, please?" He gestured a room across the hall.

"Enough of this!" Isabella swept her wand through the air. "Begone with you!" There was a flash of light, and suddenly the king was gone. In his place, amidst a pile of his clothes, sat a fat, and rather warty, toad.

The prince was at his side in an instant. "Turn him back!"

Isabella gazed curiously at the toad. "It wasn't supposed to do that...I suppose magic works differently here in the human world."

"Turn him back!" the prince repeated angrily. "Guards!"

The guards started forward again.

Isabella sighed. "Oh, what's wrong with a toad? They're delightful creatures, really. I mean, beneath all those warts is really a cute little frog ready to shed its heavy warty skin and start hopping around..."

"Really?" one of the guards looked interestedly at the toad.

"They eat flies, you know," Isabella continued. "You could raise frogs in the kitchen the way they raise cats in the barn to get rid of mice...instead of those cats that shed fur and leave half-eaten mouse parts everywhere, you could have a nice, warty toad...er...frog...that ate flies..."

"Cook would like that," agreed another guard. "She's always saying how the flies get on her nerves..."

"Is that the cook that tried to smash me with a frying pan, and ended up hitting the wall and denting the pan instead?" Isabella asked. "Goodness, I'm surprised those flies even dare to go into the kitchen..."

Suddenly, hand slammed into the fairy, pinning her against the wall. The prince glared at Isabella. "Change him _back_."

"Let – me – go!" Isabella glared reproachfully at the prince. "If you crumpled my wings..."

The prince stared coldly down at her. The fairy heaved a sigh. "Fine," she said frowning. "It's your funeral. Now let me go so I _can_ turn him back."

After a pause, the prince released Isabella. She fluttered into the air and turned to face the king. She raised her wand...and lowered it again.

"Do something with his clothes, will you?" Isabella asked. When the prince started towards her again, she glared at him. "Fine then, let's just turn your king back to a human, shall we?" she challenged. "He'll be quite naked, seeing as his clothes are sitting in a pile on the floor next to him."

Davis stopped and gave Isabella a hard look. Then he turned moved forward to pick up the king's clothes...

The toad gave a loud croak and moved forward hastily, but the prince reached out and picked up the king's robes. A bottle of something fell out of the pocket, hitting the floor with a small clink. Davis reached down to pick it up. And froze.

Isabella flew forward so she could see over his shoulder. The bottle was filled with blood-red liquid...and it had a label that announced in small, bold letters: "WARNING: DO NOT SWALLOW" and then in smaller letters, "If swallowed, may cause all muscles body to become paralyzed for at 15 minutes, possibly longer."

The prince was staring at the bottle. Isabella smiled smugly. "So, let's leave him like this, shall we?"

For a moment, Davis said nothing. Then, slowly, he got to his feet.

"Well?" Isabella said.

Davis sighed. "You're right, I suppose," he said. He turned to look at her. "How did you know about this?"

"Oh, that was nothing." Isabella waved a hand dismissively. "I was on my way to...help a friend of mine, who got himself stuck in a tight spot...which reminds me." She smiled brightly at the prince. "How about freeing a certain elf that you currently have locked in your dungeons?"

The prince blinked. "I...I don't..."

Isabella rolled her eyes. "I promise I won't let him come into the human world again. Goodness knows why he came here in the first place."

"An elf?" Davis said uncertainly.

"Well, you would think he was a human..."

"I...guess so." The prince looked almost dazed.

"Right!" Isabella beamed. "Well, time's flying! Got to go! You know: things to do, people to see!" And with that, she whizzed out of the room.

The guards stirred. "Sir," began one of the guards, "what do we do with the...er...king?"

Davis looked down at the fat toad blinking up at him. "Well..." he said deliberately, "I guess he could always work in the kitchen."


End file.
